Fertility 2.0 - Black Rock City is a kind of Petri dish. Theme camps cling in fertile clusters to its latticework of streets, artworks tumble out of it, like pollen on the air. These nodes of interaction mutate, grow and reproduce their kind. Burning Man communities have now escaped this capsule world: our culture in a Petri dish has effloresced - it spreads across five continents. This year's art theme contemplates the tendency of any being or living system to create abundant life.

Here's my guess:Total Fertility Rate (look it up) is a widely used measure of fertility. The value for the world has been declining. It will reach the magic 2.0 value sometime around 2030. At that point, by some measures, the population of the earth will be replacing itself (for those born then and going forward). It's a tricky demographic to discuss....

But understand that TFR 2.0 is a magic number. Hence Fertility 2.0 (simplified).

"As an interesting note: The BM org was formed in 1997 when the theme was first Fertility, and this year, the new non-profit was formed and there has been some restructure in the inner-workings of burning man. So, I do see this theme choice as a purposeful connection to the events in 1997. A resurgence of Fertility in the organization, and hopefully in the community!"

FlyingMonkey wrote:I guess I was way off then. I was thinking more along the lines of the next stage of mankinds evolution where humans merge with machines. Kind of a Gigeresque biomechanoid slant on the whole thing.

FlyingMonkey wrote:I guess I was way off then. I was thinking more along the lines of the next stage of mankinds evolution where humans merge with machines. Kind of a Gigeresque biomechanoid slant on the whole thing.

That sounds like more fun though!

Lets all celebrate Fertility because the BMorg has reorganized it self isn't much fun.

But I like to think "Fertility 2.0" just means "Lets all do lots of extra humping this year"

Why don't ya stick your head in that hole and find out? ~pieholePlan for the worst, expect the best. Make the most out of it under any conditions. If you cannot do that you will never enjoy yourself. ~CrispyDave

FlyingMonkey wrote:I guess I was way off then. I was thinking more along the lines of the next stage of mankinds evolution where humans merge with machines. Kind of a Gigeresque biomechanoid slant on the whole thing.

The term "Nephilim" occurs just twice in the Hebrew Bible, both in the Torah. The first is Genesis 6:1-4, immediately before the story of Noah's ark:

1. When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2. The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." 4. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The second is Numbers 13:32-33, where the Hebrew spies report that they have seen fearsome giants in Canaan:

32. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Ugly Dougly wrote:Nephilim were probably an ancestral memory of Neanderthals or Denisovans.

Well, if you watch the History Channel long enough they will probably have a show that "proves" that the Nephilim were ancient aliens that mated with early humans making us what we are today. Obviously modern man could not have existed without them.

In your wildest dreams you can not imagine the marvelous SURPRISES that await YOU.

actually this is based on watching the entire jersey shore series over and over and through scientific method have determined that the short round meatballs on the show are NOT Nephilim, but are indeed, aliens from the planet Buttafuoco.

Ugly Dougly wrote:Nephilim were probably an ancestral memory of Neanderthals or Denisovans.

Well, if you watch the History Channel long enough they will probably have a show that "proves" that the Nephilim were ancient aliens that mated with early humans making us what we are today. Obviously modern man could not have existed without them.